Why Your Regional Medical Practice Needs Managed IT
Medical practices exist to support the health and wellbeing of the community, and while technology plays a big role in your daily operations it shouldn’t take your focus off what matters most. However, you might have found this is the case if you and your team are left dealing with challenges like outdated hardware, software, and systems, poor cyber security defences, or slow performance.
Working with the right managed service provider (MSP) ensures you can concentrate on managing your patients and delivering optimal care, and say goodbye to recurring technology issues and the frustration that accompanies them. Toda your nerd herd are here to walk you through the benefits of managed IT services, and look at how we can support regional medical practices in Ballarat.
We’ve rounded up the four most significant benefits, and listed them below.
5 Ways Managed IT Services Benefit Your Medical Practice
- Enhance System Reliability
Downtime caused by technical issues seriously impacts your busy team and patients, and moving to managed IT can reduce interruptions and improve efficiency. This is achieved through proactive maintenance, continuous monitoring, and in person or remote support. From keeping your systems and software up to date to identifying and resolving issues before they worsen, managed IT services ensure everything is running smoothly and reliably – which is exactly what you need. MSPs can also provide guidance and technology leadership to optimise processes, performance, and ensure any upgrades are future proofed.
- Implement Robust Cyber Security
A good MSP prioritises strong, multilayered cyber security measures for your medical practice. Cyber attacks are on the rise, and these defences should be proactive with the ability to prevent threats (including data breaches) and minimise their impact. This is essential to safeguard your patients’ sensitive information, and to preserve the trusting relationships you’ve formed and your reputation.
Recently the importance of strong cyber defences for local businesses became clear when a Ballarat medical centre experienced a data breach. This saw patients’ sensitive data exposed including contact information, health information, and Medicare and concession cards. This is a reminder that successful cyber attacks have the power to affect our community, and there are real people who suffer the consequences.
At Lateral Plains, we provide comprehensive cyber security services tailored to your needs. This includes proactive monitoring and swift response, which is critical to avoid downtime and financial loss. Some of our services include:
- Email Security to build defences against phishing, malware, and data breaches.
- Security Awareness Training to test and build your team’s cyber awareness, ensuring they can spot current threats and follow best practices.
- Managed SOC (Security Operations Centre) and EDR (Endpoint Detection Response) to provide advanced threat detection, rapid incident response, proactive threat hunting, and more.
- Pentesting audits to identify vulnerabilities, see how they could be exploited in the event of a cyber attack, and provide essential information to fortify your defences.
These cyber security measures are integrated into our managed IT packages, and you can read about them in-depth here.
- Achieve Compliance
Managed IT services can also support you to comply with necessary regulations, including the Privacy Act 1988 which govern show patients’ personally identifiable information (PII) is handled. This covers collection, use, and storage, and an MSP can provide support to correctly implement the necessary measures, protect data, and take the complexity out of the compliance process. If you want a quick refresh on the importance of protecting PII, you can read our blog here.
- Access Cost-Effective Services
MSPs bundle their managed IT services to provide cost-effective packages. At Lateral plains, we bring together leading technology and expert support for a fixed cost, so you can rely on set billing that aligns with your budget. A proactive approach also means you’re safeguarded against cyber attacks which can result in significant financial loss in the short and long term, and are less likely to experience costly downtime.
- Tailored and Scalable Solutions
Another benefit of managed IT is improved scalability, so if you’re adding more members to your team or opening an other medical practice, we can get the technology side sorted without disruption. Your IT infrastructure seamlessly changes with your needs, whether you need to grow or scale back.
How Lateral Plains Can Help
We’re passionate about working with regional medical practices to optimise, streamline, and secure their daily operations, so you can focus on managing your patients and providing the best care possible while we handle all things technology. As a local MSP, we can also provide in person support when you need it most, taking away unnecessary stress for your team.
If you want to learn more about the benefits of managed IT for your medical practice, we’d love to chat. You can get in touch with us today here.